SoSE's IF YOU CAN GET TO BUFFALO Opens 3/14

Son of Semele Ensemble (SoSE) will present the West Coast premiere of Trish Harnetiaux's If You Can Get to Buffalo, an exploration of "A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbell, opening March 14, 2015, at the Son of Semele Theater.

The year is 1993: A befuddled Charlie Rose is our guide as intrepid online pioneers discover freedom - and looming dangers - on the virtual frontier. Their playground is one of the first-ever social networks, LambdaMoo, which invites users to mingle in a fantastical mansion made entirely of text. The only rule in this collective Utopia is that there are no rules... until a sinister puppetmaster named Mr. Bungle crosses a virtual line.

Journalist Julian Dibbell documented this early case of "rape in cyberspace" in The Village Voice, and his article provides the jumping-off point for Harnetiaux's funny, fanciful and thought-provoking play, to be directed by SoSE company member Edgar Landa. PERFORMANCES: Saturday, March 14 through Sunday, April 12, 2015
Fridays and Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 5pm
Monday performances March 23 & April 6 @ 7pm

LOCATION/PARKING: Son of Semele Theater
3301 Beverly Blvd. (@ Hoover), Los Angeles CA 90004
There is free street parking in the surrounding neighborhood.

TICKETS:
$23 online / $25 at the door
$3 discount for students/seniors/union members

Advance online purchases at sonofsemele.org. The Son of Semele box office is open on performance days only, 30 minutes prior to curtain. "It's a joy to introduce Trish Harnetiaux's work to LA audiences," says Son of Semele Artistic Director Matthew McCray. "Her dynamic and unpredictable plays are a great fit for our company. When I read Buffalo, I knew right away that I wanted us to produce it. It's a wild ride that explores some little-known history through a contemporary and surreal context."

Trish Harnetiaux is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose work has been performed and developed at Ars Nova, the Incubator Arts Project, Soho Rep, Dixon Place, The Cherry Lane, The 13th Street Theatre, 78th Street Theatre Lab, The Ohio Theatre, and The New Jersey Rep. Full length plays include If You Can Get to Buffalo (NYC - Incubator Arts Project / Baltimore - Acme Corporation / Los Angeles - Son of Semele), How to Get into Buildings (2012 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab), Welcome to the White Room (Baltimore - Glass Mind Theatre), an adaption of Shirley Jackson's novel The Bird's Nest, titled Your Pretty Little World, and Straight on til Morning (78th Street Theatre Lab/Broadway Play Publishing). Harnetiaux received her MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College and has been a two-time fellow at both the MacDowell Colony and The Corporation of Yaddo, and a resident of the Millay Colony. She is an Affiliate member of New Georges and a member of the Ars Nova Play Group. She has also written and directed the short film You Should Be A Better Friend and many other strange and curious videos with her compadres at Steel Drum in Space.

Director Edgar Landa has previously directed the SoSE world premieres of King Cat Calico Finally Flies Free! by Aaron Henne, Preludes & Fugues by John Glore, and the critically acclaimed musical adaptation of Animal Farm.

The If You Can Get to Buffalo cast includes SoSE company members Melina Bielefelt, Betsy Moore, Cindy Nguyen, Sarah Rosenberg, Caitlin Teeley and Alex Wells, plus guest artists Chase Cargill, Bart Petty and Tim Venable. The creative team includes SoSE artistic director Matthew McCray (video) and company member Barbara Kallir (lights and production management), with Meg Cunningham (set), Becca Kessin (sound) and Hunter Wells (costumes).

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